(WVLT/CBS) - A new book chronicles World War II through the letters one soldier wrote to his friend and future wife. CBS News reports that “Dear Selma: A World War II Love Letter Romance” gives readers insight into the day-to-day struggles and lives of American soldiers in Europe.
The man who wrote the letters, 96-year-old Benard Brown, was just 19 when he was drafted into the army during World War II. Desperate for a connection to his home, Brown started writing letters to a childhood friend, Selma.
Four months after D-Day, Brown said his unit boarded a ship to Europe. His letters, CBS reported, painted the picture of what American troops faced on the front lines. One reads, in part, “After spending four nights and three days in the mud, sleeping, eating, and trying to fight …”
In the correspondence, he also told Selma about living in a foxhole in “the thick of battle in France” and Jewish prisoners his unit helped liberate from the Dachau concentration camp. But what started out in desperation ended in love, as Brown said he grew to like Selma more and more.
Brown told CBS News national correspondent Chip Reid, “I really liked this person. It just made me feel good every time I read her letters and I thought, you know, I’ve got to know her better. I just have to know her better.”
When the war ended in 1945, Brown returned home and married Selma. They had three children and five grandchildren, and they were married 72 years before Selma’s death in 2017.
While his family prepared to move him into a retirement facility, Brown said his daughter came across an old box with, the daughter said, about 600 pages of handwritten letters. Brown’s daughter eventually convinced him to publish the letters in a book and dedicate it to those who didn’t make it back home.
You can purchase the book here.
“Dear Selma: A World War II Love Letter Romance” is on sale now. All proceeds from the book will be donated to Ronald McDonald House. Bernard said that, as a young child, Shelley was hospitalized for months, and with the money from this book, he hopes to help other families in the same position.
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October 06, 2020 at 09:29AM
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“Dear Selma:” WWII-era letters tell decades-old love story - WVLT
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